A poignant portrayal of the price of postsocialist transition for industrial workers
"David Kideckel challenges celebratory images of postsocialism by focusing on the often neglected working class and allowing the disenfranchised to speak for themselves. In so doing he provides a contribution to the ethnography of eastern Europe that speaks poignantly to broader discussions of work, class, and gender under neoliberalism." —Gerald Creed, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
". . . the text is wholly evocative, compellingly written, and clearly organized. 'Getting By in Postsocialist Romania' should appeal to a wide range of audiences, including scholars of postsocialist studies, those interested in issues of economic policy and development, health, and gender studies, and to students at all levels." —KAREN KAPUSTA-POFAHL, Washburn University, AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST , Vol. 36.2 May 2009
"What makes the book a ‘must-read’ for those interested in post-socialist Eastern Europe, or labour issues, is the fact that David Kideckel listens. He transforms the detailed account of day-to-day lives into authentic carefully interpreted written testimonies. This corpus of reflections makes an important contribution to Eastern European studies and reading it cannot leave a heart unmoved by the simple but powerful experiences that
an entire social class was and is struggling with in post-socialist Romania." —Gabriela Walker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Europe - Asia Studies , Vol. 61.9 Nov. 2009
This compelling ethnographic study describes how two groups of Romanian industrial workers have fared since the end of socialism. Once labor's elite, the celebrated coal miners of the Jiu Valley and the chemical workers of the Fagaras region had many social privileges and often derived genuine satisfaction from their work. Today, they are a rarely noted casualty of postsocialist transformations. Fear, distance, and alienation are the physical manifestations of stress experienced due to their precarious job status, declining health, and loss of a social safety net. Kideckel traces these issues in the context of labor, political relationships, domestic and community life, gender identities, and health. Drawing on more than three decades of fieldwork, he presents many narratives from select individuals, in their own words, providing a poignant and illuminating perspective on the everyday lives of ordinary people.
David A. Kideckel is Professor of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. He is author of The Solitude of Collectivism: Romanian Villagers to the Revolution and Beyond and has produced a video documentary focusing on Romania's Jiu Valley coal miners, entitled Days of the Miners: Life and Death of a Working Class Culture.
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Distribution: World
Publication date: 2/5/2008
